3/19/2013 Discover! Children’s Museum Triples Expectations in First Month

Start Up: Pilot Museum Saw 3,000 People From Feb. 9 to March 9

Tuesday, March 19, 2013
By Kyle Spurr, The Chronicle

Since the pilot Discover! Children’s Museum opened its doors in Chehalis Feb. 9 for six months to gather the community’s input for a possible full-scale museum, the response has exceeded all expectations.

Director Jim Valley said from opening day through March 9, the experimental pilot children’s museum had 3,000 paying visitors. Many more came on tours or stopped in to see the museum located in the Twin City Town Center between Michaels and Maurices, Valley said.

The scaled-down pilot museum has averaged 147 guests per day.

“The response of the public has been above and beyond any expectations,” Valley said. “It’s overwhelmingly positive.”

Valley said the Discover! Children’s Museum Advisory Group, which operates under the nonprofit Friends of the Chehalis Community Renaissance, originally hoped for 750 guests per month.

The advisory group has worked for more than four years to bring a children’s museum to Lewis County.

“We wanted to prove there is community support and that we can run the museum,” Valley said. “Thus far we have done all those things. The community support is obviously there.”

The six-month lease for the 3,300-square-foot space will be up on July 31, Valley said, at which point the advisory board will decide to move to a new location or stay in the current retail space.

“Nobody knows what the future will hold,” Valley said. “We have only been open a month. Hopefully by July 31 we will have an announcement.”

Before the pilot musuem can sustain a permanent location in Lewis County, Valley said, the museum needs to find private partnerships and grant opportunities.

Valley said the museum is also continuing to seek donations and volunteers and is able to host birthday parties and school field trips.

Those interested in volunteering or learning more can visit the museum’s website at www.discovermuseum.org or call (360) 996-4011.

The pilot museum, estimated to cost $50,000, offers a variety of exhibits including one titled “Power of Air” in which air blows through a maze of flexible tubing. There is a veterinarian clinic where kids can “treat” stuffed animals, a weather studio with a green screen and a farmers market with plastic produce to teach children commerce and healthy living.

The museum also houses a paleontology fossil dig, a Lego building exhibit, a train table, a toddler area with building blocks and a music room.